Google is giving QuickOffice for Android and iOS away for free

Apple won’t give you iWork for free if you aren’t buying a new iPhone or iPad, but Google will gladly give you a gratis copy of QuickOffice. Starting today, the company’s mobile productivity suite is a free download from Google Play and the App Store.

It was only a matter of time before Google turned QuickOffice loose. Microsoft has been throwing in Office for free on Windows RT slates — and then on sub-10-inch Windows tablets — and Apple recently announced that buyers of all new devices would get iWork at no charge.

The only logical thing to do, of course, was to launch a counterattack. Giving it away to Android users would’ve been cool enough, but Google is all about providing the same experience on all platforms.

Google didn’t need to keep charging for QuickOffice anyway — they stopped charging Google Apps customers for it back in December of 2012. Besides, Google is much more interested in generating recurring income from things like Google Drive and Docs subscriptions and gathering loads of delicious analytics from those who use its innumerable services.

At the end of the day, free QuickOffice is one more carrot that Google can dangle in front of consumers — and, perhaps more importantly, enterprise IT managers, educational institutions, and just about anyone else who’s thinking about spending a ton of money on mobile devices and mobile office apps.

And as if getting a free copy of one of the best productivity suites for tablets and phones wasn’t cool enough, Google will also give you an extra 10GB of Google Drive space for free. You’ve got to fire up the app by September 26, though, so move fast.